Summer 2000
2000 Batten Awards
Campaign 2000: Pressure is on the Traditional Press
Will We Reform Coverage? Or Will We Continue Our Old Ways?
Keynote by Pam Johnson
Senior Vice President-News and Executive Editor
The Arizona Republic
Amid this year’s “predictable” and traditional presidential primary coverage were some positive signs that favored citizens, “signs that we should be watching and reacting to,” asserted Arizona Republic editor Pam Johnson.
“We chased Bush and cocaine and we chased Gore and campaign finance and there was barely a public response,” Johnson said. And reporters spent a lot of time on the Straight Talk Express, the McCain bus that traveled through the primary states (except, in the Arizona Republic’s case, when the senator didn’t like the coverage.”)
Nevertheless, Johnson credited McCain with running the “the smartest campaign” and noted that the Straight Talk Express and McCain’s innumerable town halls “just showed why citizens and previous non-voters gravitated to him.”
Journalists, too, gravitated to him. And once it became clear the Republican and Democratic candidates were going to be Gore and Bush, “I felt like there was this collective groan from the press… It was more like: ‘Oh no, this is more of a sentence than an assignment.’ “
To Johnson, it was one more sign of the gap between journalists who cover the news and readers who deserve good election coverage and one more illustration that journalists are relying on old routines and reflexes.
Encouraging Signs
Still, Johnson cited many positive developments for citizens wanting to be engaged in the election process. Candidate debates were frequent enough that voters tuned in and then turned out to vote. Voter-interest sites sprung up all over the Web, giving citizens the “feeling that they could touch something themselves. They can find out something. They can chase it.”
And, in Arizona, the courts even permitted the Democrats to hold their primary election online despite concerns that people might vote twice, that there would be ballot stuffing and “that this could invite democracy to collapse.”
“For those who are on the Internet, computer literate, this is how they live. This is how they get information every day. And this is how they can vote. It was an interesting insight,” she said.
“Things will be messy from time to time, as these trends grow, but I would rather have citizens involved and things messy than to put out a newspaper every day that just doesn’t hit everybody, that there’s no response from or where citizens don’t vote.”
She stressed the importance of news organizations celebrating and building on citizen feelings of belonging in the discussion.
Find the Local Stories
“It is important, at your local news organization, to cover the president’s election as though it were a local story, because it is,” she said. “It is not a national story that could be told only by the national press that travels with candidates.”
On education, for instance, Johnson urged journalists to cover the uneven funding of local schools, the language barriers, special-ed and gifted programs, access to technology, charter schools and voucher programs and standards testing.
“There is a great opportunity to bring these national issues to readers in your community’s context, rather than generalized issue stories that come from someplace else. That’s not what your community needs.”
Similarly, she urged journalists to write about what the “new economy” means for their communities because the election of a president is going to have an impact on local economic engines.
“Is your town in the mainstream of this technology development? Or rushing to catch up? What is the existing workforce? Are there training and re-training needs? What effect does this emerging new economy have on your major employers? How do the workers feel? … What are the state and local leaders doing to frame a mission and a plan for your community’s survival as our economy makes this major shift?”
“Every national issue is local. And the local context that we can give our readers makes us valuable to them.”
In the Heart of the Throng
In April, at the ASNE convention, three leading newspaper publishers or CEOs, the President of the United States and the CEO of America Online all expressed a lot of optimism about the future of newspapers and the future of journalism in the Internet world, Johnson noted. And she added:
“Optimism about our future in the Internet world hinges on our deeply rooted capabilities to provide our readers with local insight and on our deepest commitment to our community…The landscape is different for us today. Our journalism and our journalists must adapt.
“I want to introduce Jesse Daly. He is a college freshman in the Midwest. He describes himself as a geek. He lives on the Internet and he sees little relevance, to him, in newspapers. But Jesse came to know several people in our field and wound up writing a paper about the future of news in America.
“I was struck by the mature analysis this 19-year-old provided and wanted to share it with you:
‘In order to continue to serve the community needs for information, news organizations must do so in a manner that does not infringe on any of the personal freedoms. They must be willing to share some of their power with the rest of the world. They are no longer the gatekeepers of information. The role of the journalist will be changed forever. Their position atop the mount of information will be replaced with seats in the heart of the throng.’
‘It becomes necessary then for a journalist to begin to serve the public instead of provide for it. A journalist should be able to effectively, clearly, and quietly mediate between the masses of information and the masses of consumers, bringing them a refined and pertinent truth.’
“Like the host of a good dinner party, one should not try to dominate the conversation or lecture the guests. Rather one should help guide the flow of conversation and encourage meaningful information exchange, only stepping in when necessary and letting the guests, our readers, do the work and reap the rewards, Jesse said.
“This doesn’t sound like a 19-year-old to me… I was most struck by his image of journalists atop the mount of information. It’s an image of detachment and distance and aloofness. Our Batten winners tonight approached journalism from the seat in the heart of the throng that Jesse described. They were accessible and close to the people. And their journalism made a difference in their communities.
“There is no higher calling for any of us.”
“Things will be messy from time to time…but I would rather have citizens involved and things messy than to put out a newspaper every day that just doesn’t hit everybody.”
– Pam Johnson
Senior Vice President-News and Executive Editor, The Arizona Republic